Drunken driving bill frozen in Delaware Senate committee

| Friday, June 20, 2003

A
bill that would establish a tougher standard for drunken driving
in Delaware remains in a Senate committee more than two months
after it was passed by the state’s House.

HB111,
which passed the House 39-0 on April 17, would lower the state’s
legal blood alcohol content level from 0.10 to 0.08 percent. In
addition, if a driver were over 0.16 percent, twice the legal
limit under the bill, that driver would not be eligible for the
state’s First Offender Program.

Another
bill to lower the limit was killed earlier in the session. HB37,
sponsored by Rep. William A. Oberle, R-Beecher’s Lot, was withdrawn
from consideration April 3. Some legislators have said publicly
that they opposed the effort to lower the limit. However, according
to The New Castle-Wilmington News-Journal, Gov. Ruth Ann
Minner supports the bill and listed it as a legislative priority
for this year.

The
General Assembly’s regular session ends June 30.

A
2000 federal law requires each state’s legislature to adopt the
0.08 limit by 2004 or lose 2 percent of its highway money. If
the state doesn’t lower its limit to 0.08 by October, it stands
to lose $1.6 million in federal highway funds, the Delaware
State News reported recently. The penalty escalates in future
years. States that adopt the new limit by 2007 can recover the
withheld funds.